Radio technologies in cellular communications have grown rapidly and evolved since the launch of analog cellular systems in the 1980s, starting from the First Generation (1G) in the 1980s, Second Generation (2G) in the 1990s, Third Generation (3G) in the 2000s, and Fourth Generation (4G) in the 2010s (including Long Term Evolution (LTE) and variants of LTE). Fifth generation (5G) access networks, which can also be referred to as New Radio (NR) access networks, are currently being developed and expected to fulfill the demand for exponentially increasing data traffic, and to handle a very wide range of use cases and requirements, including services such as enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) services, massive machine type communications (mMTC), and ultra-reliable and low-latency communications (uRLLC).
Traffic has been growing steadily in wireless networks in the past years, and emerging applications such as video streaming keeps the momentum going. It is predicted that video will account for 70% of all mobile traffic within a few years. Video streaming traffic, in particular, is different from other types of traffic. The resources required to maintain an acceptable user experience for video streaming are different than that required for other types of traffic, such as voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), video downloading, messaging, gaming, and p2p, etc. A small quantity of video sessions (<10%) contribute 50% or more of the total traffic.
The above-described background relating to wireless networks is merely intended to provide a contextual overview of some current issues and is not intended to be exhaustive. Other contextual information may become further apparent upon review of the following detailed description.